Truthdig contributor Nir Rosen, an American reporter who has lived for the last three years in Iraq and who can pass as Middle Eastern, describes what it’s like to live under the boot of a culturally callous—and sometimes criminal—occupying force in Iraq.

He led Al Qaeda in Iraq, but who was he? What drove Zarqawi to his murderous ends? And what can we learn from his death? Nir Rosen, one of the only Western journalists to have reported extensively from inside the Iraqi insurgency, lays out some answers.

Born in New York City in 1977, Nir Rosen is a freelance writer, photographer and film-maker who has worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and other popular tourist destinations. He is a Fellow at the New America Foundation. His book on Iraq “In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq,” was published by Simon and Schuster early in 2006.